knew that the man, whom he intended to create a free agent, but with the least possible inducement to abuse his free agency, would fall from uprightness through the unresisted temptation of the chief of the fallen angels. Yet it was his will that this world should be created, and be inhabited by intelligent beings. And what he wills must always be right, how mysterious and incomprehensible soever his motives and determinations may be.

But why, it has inconsiderately been asked, did God, knowing what would happen, create man at all? or, having created him, why permit him to be tempted? Why did he place him in a condition in which he foreknew he would fall? or why did he not create him without the possibility of his falling?

These questions might be met by many reasonable and sufficient arguments; though the difficulty would still remain of fathoming the depths of the Divine counsels. It is deemed wiser and safer, however, to waive these arguments; that disputation may be avoided upon matters which, from their evidently mysterious nature, may be discussed over and over again, without affording satisfaction to the inquirer, or edification to any.

It is enough for us to know, that God created

man, who could not have been created by any other; that man, as he is, is not man as he was, when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; that he did fall from uprightness through the deceit of the serpent, and with his own free consent; that there are evil spirits leagued together for our destruction, and constantly endeavouring to tempt us to sin, that that destruction may fall upon us; and that as God is an all-perfect Being, he has neither done any thing, nor permitted any thing to be done, inconsistent with his foreknowledge, or derogatory from his holy and all-righteous attributes.

If in thus declining to enter the field with the inquirer upon the interrogatories which he has advanced, we be deemed to have suffered a discomfiture, we must leave him to the enjoyment of his imaginary triumph; for we cannot, must not, dare not bring into the contest even the best weapons of reason, if they are to be employed in the rude, unhallowed, and forbidden attempt to rend asunder the veil which the Divine hand keeps suspended between us and the deep things of God.

The above questions savour of impiety; for they imply, at least, a suspicion that all things are not as they ought to be, and that through the fault of God. How much better is it to draw

improvement from facts that are revealed, than to direct the thoughts into that course of inquiry which lies not within the prescribed reach and limits of our powers, and which cannot be pursued without misemploying the energies of the mind, and endangering the best interests of the soul!

ORIGIN OF THE COUNSEL OF GOD FOR THE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD. THE FOREORDAINED ECONOMY EXHIBITED.

It is a main point of our convictions, that the redemption of mankind, and the mode of it, were appointed in the Divine councils before the foundation of the world. Would they who disbelieve candidly examine this point—would they seriously consider that the provision of grace was designed before the transgression was committed and would they studiously trace the mercy of God in Christ Jesus from the eternity in which it was ordained, through all the periods of time in which it has been operating the good of man- they would surely see less reason to be offended at the difficulty of reconciling the foreknowledge of God with the fall of his creatures, and, perhaps, be induced to drop their doubts altogether, and believe. They would then observe, what we consider a grand and peculiar feature of the Christian economy, that it was

owing to this foreknowledge, mysterious as that attribute is, that the means of salvation were provided before favour was lost by disobedience.

The world, it is true, was four thousand years old before Christianity was actually dispensed; but the world was not in being when the gracious design was formed of redeeming man from the wrath and misery into which, through his own fault, he was about to fall. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, mysteriously three persons, but one and the same God, decreed in their eternal council to effect the salvation of mankind through the operations of justice and mercy combined, and acting together so that the latter might pour out its full measure, while the former received its righteous demands; and to deliver them, if they would hear and obey the law which they should know, and the word which should be revealed, from the tyranny of the disobedient angels, into whose bondage they would fall through transgression.

The foreordained economy, as we have been graciously taught, was this:

In the fulness of time, the time fixed and determined in the Divine mind that looked into futurity, the Son, sent by the Father, was to come in our nature into the world, to teach mankind the righteousness of God, and the way

to eternal life; to recover by a sinless obedience the favour which they would lose; and to redeem them by a spotless sacrifice from the wrath which they would incur. they would incur. After his departure into heaven to intercede for transgressors by right of merit and with the claims of atonement, the Holy Ghost was to descend from above with a more powerful efficacy than before to carry on the work of truth, of sanctification, of comfort, and of everlasting peace. This act of reconciliation through the Son was to be the act of God himself, clothed with our nature, but void of sin. First, in order that human redemption should be wrought solely and exclusively by divine agency; and, secondly, because man, having become sinful and corrupt, could not recover the favour of God by any meritorious righteousness of his own, nor satisfy his justice by any precious or sufficient atonement.

But, before the coming of the Son of God, various preparations were to be made, and various notices given, that mankind might look forward to it in faith and hope, as the great event that was to reconcile and restore them to God. The promise of a Deliverer, or Saviour by conquest and suffering, was to be made immediately upon the fall. This promise was to be repeated in other terms to some of the faithful.